Diaspora in Des Moines

Ghee

Who knew the diaspora had reached Des Moines?  It certainly wasn't there when I was growing up, but in the years since I moved to Vermont and then California it's managed to make its way to Iowa.  Jared has a famous (well, I consider it famous) scallop recipe that he makes with ghee.  The day before Thanksgiving my dad went to the Indian grocery in Des Moines and asked for this thing called "ghee."  Not surprisingly he was helpfully pointed in the right direction.  As my dad noted, "You could have gotten anything in that store.  Food, DVDs, clothing, little statues.  Anything you might want." Notice the Swad ghee on the left with two cute cows and a baby Krishna.  Does it get better than that?


And then Bill and Carrie decided to take us out to dinner.  So they drove us across town to Merle Hay to go out to India Star for dinner.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect; when you've got one Indian restaurant in town it could be either good or really, really bad.  It was good.  The owners are Punjabi, our waiter was from Hyderabad, and they played classic Bollywood music from the 70's.  With a good dal and a Kingfisher, well, you're pretty much set for anything.

Carrie, Bill, and Jared at India Star
Yes, it's fuzzy, but the font is pretty good!